The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-01-15
THE MOON STORY.
History of What May be Called the Most
Gigantic Hoax of the Century.

1
New York Sun, was the most gigantic
newspaper hoax ever perpetrated. Il
was known that Sir John Herschel had
zone to the Cape Of Good Hope to make
observations with new instruments o.
extraordinary power. Then there ap
peared Il series of papers describing
what Sir John had discovered They
purported to be copied from the pages
of a supplement to the Edinbarg (Scot-
land) Journal Of Science, exclusive cop
les of which had been received at tha
SIN Office.
Ii was known that the atmosphere d
the Cape of Good Hope is unequalel
for purity, and of course has CORR.
spending facility of celestial obseryr
ton, and when it was stated, what No
body among us could undertake D
deny, especially rs it was said to B
confirmed by actual observation, tht
the great object glass of the astron-
mers chief telegraph was lens I
seven tons weight, no great wondr
was felt if the results from its use wee
unexampled. 1t was said, then, in ID
alleged report of the great disc4f
cries" that so great was the magniA
ing power of this instrumGiSs- (42,Ql
times) that it could -iaap;ls.t to o.,sfkSk.
the distance of the moon degTeeof
visibility equal to that enioyedl0y OBJ
jects on our earth not more thapne hum
dred yards of. This put it vthin St.
johns power to view, no'only the
larger class of natural obiets in the
moon, but to see with eas the dwell
ings, animals, and even prisons of the
Lunarians, which he accordingly de-
| scribed.
The descriptions of Ina scenery all
believed. There was o much verislm-
ilitude, such shrewd and apparently
accurate scientific rlraseology, that
scientists found it 70 easy task why
they should not give.he story credence.
Bat when there camedescriptions of the
web-wings appended to the fayorite in
habitants. of our satellite, constituting
them in appearance a sort of an-bat,
strong scepticism of the whole story
was manifested. Edgar Allan Poe, the
poet, speaking of the immense success
of the moon hoax" states THAT not
one person in ten discredited it, and
(strangest point of alD the doubters
We're chiefly those who doubted without
being able to say why-the ignorant,
those uniformed in astronomy, people
who who would not believe because the
thing was so novel, so entirely 'out of
the usual way A grave professor Of
mathematics in Virginia college told
me seriously that he had no doubt Of
the truth of the whole affair! The hoax
was circulated to an immense extent;
was translated into various Languages,
Snd was, upon the whole, decidedly the
greatest hit in the way of sensation, of
merely popular sensation, ever made
by any similar fiction either in Amesica
or Europe"
The sceptics thought that tsay wong
discover the truth or fiction of tie fnTs-
ferrous story by the effect it would pro-
duce in Europe, but the event was at
first by no means SO distinct for them
or so unfavorable to the credit of the
story as might have been supposed, 1t
was read all over Europe with as keen
an interest as it had been here, and was
made the subject of certain kind of
discussion, even in the French Academy
of Sciences, when the great Arago at
length took it upon himself, chiefly, as
he said, out of respect to the name and
honor of his friend, Herschel, to put an
eXtinguisher upon it. Herschel himself
was first made acquainted with the lib
erty that had been taken with his name
by its being sent him amongst bundle
of miscellaneous New York newspapers.
Obligingly furnished him by Caleb
Weeks, who had gone out from the
United States to the Cape for lot of
giraffes and other African animals for
his menagerie. He saw immediately,
Of course, the nature of the thing, treat
ing it good-naturedly.
James Gordon Bennett. of the New
York Herald was the first to charge the
SIN with the fabrication of hoax. and
the inventor Of the story, who was edi-
tor Of the paper, had to be very adroit
in dealing with the situation in such a
manner as to conduct the concentrated
indignation and disappointment of the
public safely away. Trueor false, it
wonderfully increased the circulation
Of the Sun, but Mr. Richard Adam Locke.
an Englishman, who was the author of the
hoax, never wrote any thing afterwards
which created much sensation. 1t took
a long time to convince the public that
it had been deceived, and it waSTA.I,
that some spinsters at Springfield,
Mass, took the story in such good earn.
est that they commenced dhe establish
ment of missionary society for the con-
version of the Lunarians. Ben: Perleu
PoOre, IN Boston Budget.
The washerwomen of Holland. who
get up their linen so beautifully white.
use refined borax us washing powder
instead of sods, in the proportion of
one large handful of borax powder TO
about ten gallons of boiling water.
They thus save in soap nearly half. All
fhn NUa shine acknowledgements